Heavy rains compound dire conditions of displaced Gazans, UN warns

UN agencies say last week’s heavy rains have worsened the already difficult living conditions of hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Unicef ​​spokesman Jonathan Crickx told the BBC that the weather overnight was “terrible”, with rain so heavy that he saw up to 15cm (6in) of water on the ground near his office.

He said he was extremely concerned that children living in tents and makeshift shelters with wet clothes were succumbing to hypothermia and other diseases.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said a baby died of hypothermia and at least 11 more people died in building collapses caused by severe weather.

UN agencies have accelerated the distribution of tents, blankets and clothing since the ceasefire in Gaza began nine weeks ago, but stated that sufficient aid has still not arrived.

The UN and its partners estimate that around 55,000 families have been affected by the rains so far, with their belongings and shelters damaged or destroyed.

More than 40 emergency shelters were severely flooded following heavy rains on Monday and Tuesday, forcing many people to relocate.

“Last night was really terrible for the families. The heavy rains were so intense that we could see 10cm, 15cm (4-6 inches) of water from our office and our guesthouse at one point. And the winds were very strong,” Jonathan Crickx, Unicef’s communications chief for the State of Palestine, told the BBC’s Today program on Wednesday.

“When I drove this morning I saw a lot of people trying to dump some of the water with buckets.”

He noted that most of the estimated one million people living in tents and makeshift shelters had been displaced multiple times during the two-year war between Israel and Hamas and had little or no clothing on them.

“When I see [children] His clothes were wet this morning. I could see the parents trying to dry some of the blankets they had. “However, it has been raining almost continuously for the last 4-5 days, so it is extremely difficult to keep the children dry,” he said.

“With nighttime temperatures hovering around 7°C, 8°C (45-46°F), we are extremely concerned about children getting sick or, worse, dying from hypothermia.”

He added that many tents are at risk of blowing away or being destroyed by the strong winds that come with rain because they are made of just a piece of tarpaulin or plastic sheeting nailed to a fragile wooden structure.

Mr Crickx said Unicef ​​was able to bring in more aid during the ceasefire to help children cope with harsh winter conditions, including 250,000 winter clothing kits, 600,000 blankets and 7,000 tents, but this was not enough.

“We are working tirelessly to bring in and distribute this aid, but the scale of the needs is so great that we still have thousands of people and children who are truly suffering every night,” he warned.

Gaza’s health ministry said a two-week-old boy named Mohammed Abu al-Khair died of hypothermia on Monday, two days after he was hospitalized and moved to intensive care. In the statement, it was stated that 11 more people have lost their lives so far due to the collapse of the war-damaged buildings in which they took shelter.

Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Hamas-run Civil Defense agency, put the death toll higher. In the video, he said that a total of 17 people, including 4 children, died due to building collapses and cold.

He added that 17 residential buildings were completely destroyed and 90 buildings were partially destroyed due to wind and rain.

Video footage released Tuesday showed Civil Defense first responders pulling a man’s body from the rubble of a building in the Shati refugee camp, northwest of Gaza City. According to eyewitnesses, its roof suddenly collapsed.

“We call on the world to solve our problems and rebuild the area so that people can have homes instead of being displaced and living on the streets,” the man’s relative Ahmed al-Hosari told AFP news agency. he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the collapse of buildings damaged by severe weather was “deeply concerning”.

The need for “increased and sustained humanitarian assistance to respond to immediate and long-term needs, including food, shelter and equipment to repair critical infrastructure” was emphasized.

Cogat, the Israeli military body that controls Gaza’s border crossings, rejected claims of deliberate aid restrictions as “inconsistent with the facts on the ground and the coordination that continues every day.”

It is stated that between 600 and 800 trucks carrying humanitarian aid materials enter Gaza every day, and since the beginning of the ceasefire, approximately 310 thousand tents and tarpaulins, as well as more than 1,800 truckloads of warm blankets and clothing, have been delivered.

The UN says a total of 67,800 tents, 372,500 tarpaulins and 318,100 bedding materials were collected from the crossings during the same period.

The second phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas includes plans for the reconstruction of Gaza, as well as plans for post-war management, withdrawal of Israeli troops, and disarmament of Hamas.

Last week, the Israeli prime minister said that the second phase was approaching, and that within the scope of the first phase, only the body of one Israeli hostage in Gaza would be returned by Hamas.

The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken hostage.

More than 70,600 people have since been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, according to the regional health ministry.